Ring cutting tool

ABSTRACT

A supporting frame mounts an enclosed motor that drives a circular cutting disc. Mounted outward of the disc is a pivoted platform with a movable ring clamp indexed to facilitate the removal of a pre-selected section from a finger ring. Also provided is a pivotable shelf for facilitating the cutting of ring stock, ring sections and other jewelry details.

United States Patent Gilliam, deceased et al. 1 May 30, 1972 54 RING CUTTING TOOL [56] References Cited [72] Inventors: George Henry Gilliam, deceased, late of UNITED STATES PATENTS by Gay Maude 3,066,564 12/1962 Carpenter ..83/4ll administratrix; Wesley R. Door, Kennewick, Wash.

Assignee: USM Corporation, Boston, Mass.

Filed: Aug. 24, 1970 Appl. No.: 66,234

U.S. Cl ..83/411, 83/522 Int. Cl ..B26d 7/06 Field of Search ..83/4l l, 431, 522; 29/1606; 269/55, 57, 63

Primary Examiner-Andrew R. .luhasz Assistant Examiner-David R. Melton Att0rney-Wells, St. John & Roberts ABSTRACT vided is a pivotable shelf for facilitating the cutting of ring stock, ring sections and other jewelry details.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures Patented May 30-, 1972 2 Sheets-Shem 1 RING currmc TOOL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Finger rings are worn by the owners over a relatively wide span of years. During these years, ones finger sometimes enlarges and sometimes becomes smaller in diameter. It is therefore necessary to change the size of the ring, by either removing or adding a section to its periphery. Such work is required rather frequently of a jeweler, and the present apparatus has been designed to facilitate such adjustment. It provides a power driven tool for accurately modifying the periphery of the ring by cutting. It serves various other purposes by providing a readily available tool for cutting jewelry stock.

. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention lies in a combination of a supporting frame structure together with cutting means mounted on the frame structure and releasable work holding means pivotably mounted to the frame structure about an axis that is perpendicular to the plane of the cutting edge. The work holding means, in the form of a ring clamp or shelf, is arcuately movable along a path wherein the ring or other work piece intersects the cutting edge. In one preferred form of the invention the releasable work holding means is a clamp fora circular finger ring, the clamp being also pivotable about an axis substantially coincident with the finger ring axis. Manual indexing means is provided to'facilitate the removal of measured sections of the ring periphery as necessary.

It is the first object of the invention to provide a mechanically simple tool for accurate removal of material from a finger ring, the tool being usable by persons having littleor no training in jewelry modification and measurement.

Another object of the invention is to provide a single cutting tool for ring modification uses that facilitates the collection of removed dust and pieces for later salvage.

Another object of the invention is to provide for the jewelr trade a versatile cutting tool for a variety of uses incidentalto jewelry manufacturing and modification.

These and further objects will be evident from the following disclosure, which specifically is directed to one form of the invention as an example thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top view of the apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 1, illustrating use of the apparatus by dashed lines;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top view of the ring clamp illustrating the cutting ofa ring;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 illustrating a' succeeding out being made in a ring;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary view illustrating use of the apparatus for cutting a ring insert; and

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6, illustrating use of the apparatus for cutting blank ring stock.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1 and 2 specifically, the apparatus comprises an enclosed frame structure 10 designed to rest on a table, counter or other suitable horizontal supporting surface. It includes a motor housing 11 and an adjacent upwardly open pan 12. A rotatable'motor shaft 13 projects from the housing 11 outward over the pan 12. At its outer end the shaft 13 mounts a circular cutter disc 14, which might be an abrasive the cutting edge of the disc 14. Leaf springs 31 fixed to the frame structure 10 engage the underside of platform 15 and normally maintain the platform 15 at rest in the angular position shown in FIG. 2.

Mounted on the upper side of platform '15 is a ring clamp assembly generally designated by the numeral 17. This includes a pair of fixedposts 18 centered along the plane of disc 14 and a slidable post 20 in alignment with disc 14. This geometrical relation serves to center a finger ring with respect to the plane of disc 14, so that a cut made by the disc 14 will be radial with respect to the center of a ring. This relationship is best illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. The slidable post 20 is fixed to a horizontal rod 21 guided by a bearing block 23. The rod 21 is urged outwardly by a compression spring 22 that encircles it and which exerts a biasing force urging post 20 apart from the posts 18.

The ring clamp 17 is mounted on a transparent arcuate plate 29. Plate 29 is pivotally connected to platform 15 about a short pivot shaft 24 which is located so as to be substantially coaxial with an average finger ring mounted about the post 18, 20.

Plate 29 is provided with an arcuate edge 25 centered ab t the axis of pivot 24. Edge 25 serves as a driven frictional gear for indexing of the ring clamp 17. A frictional drive gear 26, of resilient material such as rubber, is mounted beneath a knob 27, the gear 26 and knob 27 being rotatably journalled as a unit on the platform 15 about an axis parallel to the axis of pivot 24. By rotation of knob 27, the ring clamp 17 is pivoted about the axis of pivot 24, and therefore about the center of a finger ring carried thereby. The axis of pivot 24 is aligned with the plane of the cutting edge of disc 14 and therefore each cut made in a finger ring held on the ring clamp 17 will be a radial cut. 7

To facilitate in the cutting of a ring periphery, platform 15 is provided with printed inicia in the 'form of radial indicators shown as scale 28. At the-center of scale 28 is a marking indicated as 'A," which is the ring size removed by the width of the cutter disc 14. A single cut of a finger ring at this setting will therefore remove A of a ring size. To, remove a larger amount of material from aring it is required that two cuts be made. The angular positions of the ring clamp spanning the section to be removed are indicated on scale 28 at both positions necessary to remove a given ring size. For instance, as shown in FIG. 4, the removal of one ring size requires a first cut of a ring 41 at the setting 1," by bringing the single indicator arrow 42 on plate 29 into alignment with the numeral 1 After the cut has been completed by pivoting the platform 15 to the dash line position as shown in FIG. 3, the knob 27 is rotated to bring arrow 42 into alignment with the opposite numeral 1" and another cut is made by again pushing platform 15 downwardly. These two actions result in the removal of a section of the ring 41 such that when the remainder of the ring is closed and repaired, ring 41 will be one size smaller. The removed piece and filings are collected in pan l2.

To provide a more versatile tool for a jeweler, a longitudinal shelf 32 is pivoted to the frame structure 10 oppositely to the platform 15. This shelf 32 is connected to the frame structure by a pivot hinge 38 aligned along an axis parallel to the hinge 16 and also perpendicular between the frame structure 10 and shelf 32 and serves to normally position shelf 32 as shown in FIG. 2, but permits manual movement of the shelf 32 to the cutting position shown in dash lines FIG. 3.

Adjacent to the cutter disc 14, the outer edge of shelf 32 has an upwardly turned lip 33 that serves as a longitudinal guide for work pieces. Shelf 32 and lift 33 are slotted at 34 to provide clearance for the cutter disc 14.

The upper surface of shelf 32 has three scales imprinted upon it. At the left of the slot 34 is a ring size addition scale 36. Ring stock can thereby be measured for cutting inserts to add to an existing ring to increase the size of the ring. The numerals in scale 36 indicate the size that will be added to a ring by insertion of the piece cut from the numeral to the slot 34 in the manner shown in FIG. 6. During such cutting, the ring stock shown at 43 in FIG. 3 may be manually held by a wooden block (not shown).

The second scale on shelf 32 is shown at 35. This is a scale measured from slot 34 to the right, and ring stock cut along the indicated numerals will, when formed in a circle, provide a ring of the indicated size.

This tool is also useful in cutting the attachment width of a metal watch band to reduce its size to meet the requirements of a given watch. A watch band scale is shown at 37, the conventional sizes indicated being again measured in relation to the position of slot 34 and therefore the position of disc 14.

The cutting of jewelry 'stock, rings, etc., results in the production of considerable dust and the small pieces removed from rings. Such metal is highly valuable, being rich in gold, silver, platinum, and other fine metals. In the structure shown, the disc 14 rotates in the direction indicated by arrow 45, which results in the dust being directed downwardly toward pan .12, where it collects in a location shielded by the covering shelf .32 and platform 15. The dust is therefore not unsightly and is not detrimental to use of the tool on an exposed counter in the view of the public. The metal can be periodically recovered by the user by removing a plug 40 at the center of pan 12 and directing the metal through an aperture in the pan to a suitable container (not shown). It can then be handled for refining and recovery purposes.

Many modifications might be made in the precise structure of the apparatus without deviating from the essential relationship disclosed above. The structure of the ring clamp, the nature of the indicating scales, and the type of indexing arrangement can all be modified.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. An apparatus for cutting a workpiece, comprising:

a supporting frame structure;

cutting means mounted on said frame structure having a cutting edge for severing material along a fixed plane relative to said framework;

and releasable work holding means adjacent to said cutting edge pivotally mounted to said frame structure about an axis perpendicular to the plane of said cutting edge for positioning a workpiece for arcuate movement thereon 5 through a path about said axis intersected by said cutting edge; said work holding means comprising:

a rigid platform pivotally mounted to said frame structure about said axis;

a ring clamp mounted to the platform; said ring clamp including releasable elements for selectively gripping a finger ring having a central ring axis in such fashion that one peripheral section of the ring will be completely severed by the cutting edge as the platform is pivotally moved about the pivotal axis of the platform relative to said frame structure;

said ring clamp being pivotally mounted to said platform about a clamp axis substantially coaxial with the ring axis of a ring gripped thereby.

2. An apparatus as set out in claim 1 further comprising: indexing means on said platform operatively connected to said ring clamp relative to said platform about the clamp axis.

3. An apparatus as set out in claim 2 wherein said indexing 25 means comprises:

a first gear surface forward on said ring clamp and centered about said clamp axis; and a manually adjustable gear rotatably mounted to said platform in driving engagement with said ring clamp.

3O 4. An apparatus as set out in claim 3 further comprising:

angularly spaced indicia on said ring clamp and platform corresponding to the relative angular location of the ring clamp about said clamp axis, said indicia being directly related to the span of the ring periphery severed by the cutting edge in one or more movements of a ring about the platform axis. 

1. An apparatus for cutting a workpiece, comprising: a supporting frame structure; cutting means mounted on said frame structure having a cutting edge for severing material along a fixed plane relative to said framework; and releasable work holding means adjacent to said cutting edge pivotally mounted to said frame structure about an axis perpendicular to the plane of said cutting edge for positioning a workpiece for arcuate movement thereon through a path about said axis intersected by said cutting edge; said work holding means comprising: a rigid platform pivotally mounted to said frame structure about said axis; a ring clamp mounted to the platform; said ring clamp including releasable elements for selectively gripping a finger ring having a central ring axis in such fashion that one peripheral section of the ring will be completely severed by the cutting edge as the platform is pivotally moved about the pivotal axis of the platform relative to said frame structure; said ring clamp being pivotally mounted to said platform about a clamp axis substantially coaxial with the ring axis of a ring gripped thereby.
 2. An apparatus as set out in claim 1 further comprising: indexing means on said platform operatively connected to said ring clamp relative to said platform about the clamp axis.
 3. An apparatus as set out in claim 2 wherein said indexing means comprises: a first gear surface forward on said ring clamp and centered about said clamp axis; and a manually adjustable gear rotatably mounted to said platform in driving engagement with said ring clamp.
 4. An apparatus as set out in claim 3 further comprising: angularly spaced indicia on said ring clamp and platform corresponding to the relative angular location of the ring clamp about said clamp axis, said indicia being directly related to the span of the ring periphery severed by the cutting edge in one or more movements of a ring about the platform axis. 